The Union minister for chemicals & fertilisers, Ram Vilas Paswan is meeting pharmaceutical industry associations today (August 17) for an interactive session on the formulation of National Pharmaceutical Policy 2006. The meeting comes in the backdrop of severe criticism against the proposed policy draft from several other ministries and the industry stakeholders.

The industry associations informed that the comments from various ministries on the proposed policy would be the main agenda for discussion.

The opposition from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to Paswan's proposal to include all 354 drugs that figure in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) under the scope of price control and its directive to the chemical ministry to examine the price variation that has happened in the case of NLEM drugs during the last three years had caused much confusion over the fate of the proposed policy.

The minister may attempt a face saving act by making industry associations commit for voluntary price reduction, it is felt.

The Planning Commission had also expressed unhappiness over the move to increase the span of price control. It had opined that such controls could prove counter-productive and discourage new investment and limit competition.

As per the current draft, the policy seeks to include, in addition to the existing 74 drugs and their formulations, the 354 drugs with specified strength as mentioned in the NLEM 2003. It has also proposed, apart from the cost plus method, other systems of price control like negotiated prices, differential prices, reference prices and bulk purchase price.